on this "basis";

4) The psyche of social man, determined partly directly by economics and partly by the entire socio-political structure that has grown upon it;

5) Various ideologies reflecting the properties of this psyche...

[98] Let us take, for example, our contemporary agrarian question. To an intelligent landlord—a Cadet—"compulsory alienation of the land" may seem more or less—that is, inversely proportional to the magnitude of "fair compensation"—a melancholy historical necessity. But to a peasant striving to obtain "a little land," it will seem, conversely, only this "fair compensation" as more or less melancholy a necessity, while the "compulsory alienation" itself will necessarily appear to him as the expression of his free will and the most precious guarantee of his freedom.

In saying this, we touch, perhaps, upon the most important point in the doctrine of freedom—a point not mentioned by Engels, of course, only because to a man who had passed through the school of Hegel, this point is intelligible without any explanation whatsoever...

Feuerbach and Ditzgen.24

Annotations made no earlier than May 1908.

First printed partially in 1933 in Lenin Collection XXV.

Completely printed in 1958 in the 4th edition of the Works of V. I. Lenin, vol. 38.

Printed from the original manuscript.

24 Reference is to page 24 of Plekhanov's book (see this volume, p. 455). Ed.

V. SHULYATIKOV. "THE JUSTIFICATION OF CAPITALISM
IN WESTERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY.
FROM DESCARTES TO E. MACH"212

MOSCOW, 1908

[5—10] In intellectual circles a traditional attitude toward philosophy has become established... Philosophical ideas are represented as too little and too weakly connected with any kind of class foundation whatsoever...

A great many Marxists hold this same view. They are convinced that in the ranks of the proletarian vanguard a varied diversity of philosophical views is permissible, that it matters little whether the ideologues of the proletariat profess materialism or energetics, neo-Kantianism or Machism...

To hold to the view outlined means to fall into a naive, most lamentable error... All without exception philosophical terms and formulas with which it operates... serve [as signs] for the designation of social classes, groups, cells, and their interrelations. When dealing with the philosophical system of this or that bourgeois thinker, we are dealing with a picture of the class structure of society, drawn with the aid of conventional signs and reproducing the social *processus* of a certain bourgeois group...

One cannot accept these pictures as something that could be utilized and reconciled with the proletarian worldview. This would mean falling into opportunism, attempting to combine what cannot be combined—

[incorrect]
[incorrect!]

...The first brilliant experiment of such a revaluation took place a few years ago. Comrade A. Bogdanov's article "Authoritarian Thinking" opens, without doubt, a new era in the history of philosophy: after the appearance of this article, speculative philosophy lost the right to operate with its two fundamental concepts "spirit" and "body"; it was established that the latter developed against the background of authoritarian relations, and the antithesis between them reflected a social antithesis—the antithesis between the organizing "upper" and the executive "lower." With admirable consistency, bourgeois criticism kept silent about the work of the Russian Marxist...

Under such conditions, socio-genetic analysis of philosophical concepts and systems is not only desirable, but directly necessary. The task is very very difficult and complex... Contemporary fashionable systems, for example, neo-Kantianism or Machism...

Our essay is not intended for a narrow circle of specialists... The demos exhibits interest in philosophy... Our exposition has a somewhat elementary character... The point of view we defend... may be more easily assimilated if it is illustrated not with cumbersome, but with economically selected material...

I

ORGANIZING AND ORGANIZED "PRINCIPLES"

[11—14] Economic inequality appeared: organizers gradually transformed themselves into owners of means of production**, which once belonged to society...

of society... The primitive

??

Production relations

|"authoritarian"|

there it is, clear
nonsense!!

[The savage] begins everywhere to discern the manifestation of organizing will.
"... The executor is accessible

[Located in the collection of his articles "From the Psychology of Society."]

In this case, we somewhat depart from the explanation proposed by comrade Bogdanov: comrade Bogdanov does not ascribe to the latter circumstance the significance which it undoubtedly had, and indeed does not even put it forward. We had occasion to speak of this question in another place: "from the history and practice of class struggle" (in the chapters devoted to the genesis of commanding classes). Publishers S. Dorovatsky and A. Charushnikov.

ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK BY V. SHULYATIKOV

to external senses—this is the physiological organism, the body; the organizer is inaccessible to it, he is presupposed within the body; this is—a spiritual personality"...

Very general!! Phrases. The savage and primitive communism are smudged. Materialism and idealism in Greece likewise.

Belles-lettres
and naked phrase.

The concept of spirit acquires an increasingly abstract character.

When in the history of Greek philosophy the famous question was posed: how is it possible that from a pure, unchanging, immaterial substance flows the manifold of transitory phenomena of the material world? in what relation does "Being" stand to "Becoming"?—this was not, contrary to the assertions of all manner of historiographers of philosophy, the highest flight of noble human thought, the most selfless effort directed at unraveling the greatest mystery of the universe and thereby making humanity happy for all eternity. The matter was much simpler! Such a formulation of the question spoke of nothing other than that in Greek cities the process of social stratification had gone far, that the abyss between social "upper" and "lower" had become deeper, and the old ideology of the organizers, which had corresponded to less differentiated social relations, had lost its right to exist. Before, despite all the difference between substance and the world of phenomena, direct connection between them did not give rise to doubt. Now the existence of this connection is denied. Substance and the world of phenomena are declared to be incommensurable quantities. The relationship between them is possible only through a series of intermediate links. Or, expressing oneself in more philosophical language, we cannot establish their interrelations either through the senses or through ordinary thinking: for this there is required the assistance of some special "idea," a special intuition.

only
idealism!

so, so.

And Greek
materialism?

And the skeptics??


NONSENSE

II

ORGANIZING AND ORGANIZED "PRINCIPLES"

IN THE PERIOD OF MANUFACTUR PRODUCTION

[15—17] This same question—the question of the incommensurability of spiritual and material "principles," of the absence of direct connection between them—was put forward and resolved by the founding fathers of new philosophy...

The spiritualistic sympathies of the Renaissance and subsequent epochs are usually mentioned in passing, but they are very characteristic*...

The medieval craftsman, being an organizer, at the same time also performed executive functions—worked together with his apprentices. The manufacturer-bourgeois knows functions of only one type: he is an organizer in the pure sense. In the first case, the soil for that dualistic "mode of representing facts," which comrade Bogdanov clarified, is indeed given, yet the antithesis between organizer and executor is somewhat veiled, and therefore the corresponding antithesis in the realm of ideology, between spiritual and corporeal, active and passive principles, could not take on sharp form... In the workshop of the medieval craftsman there was no place for representatives of so-called untrained, unqualified labor. In the manufactur workshop work is found for them. They constitute the "lower stratum." Above them are arranged other strata, other groups of workers, distinguished from one another by degree of qualification. Already within their ranks certain organizing sediments form. Going further up the ascending ladder of links, we see groups managing the technical organization of the enterprise and administrators. The owner of the enterprise is thus "liberated," not only from all physical labor, but also from many purely organizing duties...

[19] In contrast to medieval thinkers, the "fathers" of new philosophy devote in their systems very much attention to the world of transitory phenomena, examining it in detail

valuable and
students
training
with them

to p. 19

phra-
ses

this is not in the
spirit that
you have213

Let us recall that Marx in Vol. I of *Capital* and K. Kautsky note the dependence between abstract religious views and the development of commodity production.

ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK BY V. SHULYATIKOV

study its structure, development, laws of the interrelation of its parts, create natural philosophy. That same "elevated" position of the directors of manufactur enterprises, which inspired the fathers of new philosophy with the "pure" idea of organizing will, suggested to them equally the mechanical explanation of processes of material reality—that is, processes taking place in the realm of the organized mass.

The point is that the director of a manufactur enterprise is only the final link in a quite long chain of organizing links. In relation to him, the other organizers appear as subordinates, and in their turn stand opposed to him as organized... But insofar as their role differs from that of the chief director, insofar as it reduces to participation in technical work, from which the chief director has "liberated" himself, insofar their "spiritual" character is obscured, insofar their activity is evaluated as the activity of "matter"...

[21—24] The bourgeois system generally is a two-faced Janus... True, a decisive formulation of dualism we find only in Cartesianism—a system created precisely at the dawn of a new economic era; true, subsequent philosophical systems, beginning with Spinoza's, declare the Cartesian opposition of God and world, spirit and body to be contradictory... It is not of victory over the dualistic point of view that materialism and positivist systems of bourgeois philosophy testify, in turn. The difference between bourgeois metaphysics and bourgeois "positive worldview" is not as great as it might appear at first glance... The attack on the part of materialism is directed not against the fundamental presupposition put forward by metaphysics: the concept of organizing will is not crossed out by materialism. It figures only under different names: "spirit" is replaced, for example, by "force"...

who? See
p. 17

nonsense!

In the XVII century, in the days of its "stormy strivings," English bourgeoisie preached a doctrine according to which everything in the world ought to be explained as the movement of material particles taking place with mechanical necessity. English bourgeoisie was then laying the foundation

In this vulgarization
of the history of philosophy
the struggle of the bourgeoisie
against feudalism is entirely
forgotten.


of large-capitalist economy... The entire world was represented by them in the form of an organization of material particles joining together according to immanent laws...

With similar treatises the French bourgeoisie flooded the book market in the second half of the XVIII century... And what is the internal structure of enterprises, we know: it is the realm of matter and mechanical processes. Hence the generalization: man is a machine, nature is a machine...

x) The movement of matter is conditioned by it itself, more precisely by its own force (Holbach). The organizing will again, as you see, transforms itself greatly, but the presence of it is stated and recognized as absolutely necessary.

?> |... Manufacturers [did] not appear as revolutionary "Sturm-und-Drang"ers...

x) And their struggle against priestcraft? Shulyatikov falsified history!

III

CARTESIANISM

nonsense!
proletariat
= matter

nonsense

[25—29] The organized need an organizer...

Intermediate organizing links—"individual souls" can perform their organizing role only in the presence of a supreme organizing center. Only the latter brings them into contact with the proletariat—"matter"—within the framework of an organized whole, the manufactur workshop...

Descartes' concept of man is nothing other than the further extension of a particular form of thinking, "a particular mode of representing facts, a particular type of their combination in the psyche." We saw that the world, in Descartes' system, is organized according to the type of manufactur enterprise...

We are dealing with a cult of mental labor...

I—an organizer, and as such can exist only by performing organizing functions, not executive ones: that is what Descartes' assertion means, if one translate it into the language of class relations...

The ordinary, naive view represents the external world as it appears through the prism of the senses...

The concept of the worker only as a shoemaker or only as an upholsterer yields place

to the "idea" of the concept of the worker in general. Profession no longer constitutes the "essence" of labor power... Plato

[31—33] Time, Descartes explains, cannot be considered a property of matter: it is a "mode of thinking," a generic concept created by the latter...

Philosophy is henceforth—the faithful handmaiden of capital... The revaluation of philosophical values was determined by shifts among the organizing upper ranks and organized lower ranks. New organizers, new organized—new concepts of God and soul, new concepts of matter...

IV

SPINOZA

[37] All relationship between soul and body only through God. All relationship between intermediate organizing links and the organized mass only with the sanction of the supreme organizer!...

Movement of matter and the activity of soul are only two sides of one and the same process. There can be no question whatsoever of any interaction between soul and matter.

[41—42] Experience, sensory perception for him are an indispensable condition of knowing things...

But... when Spinoza died, as is well known, the funeral carriage bearing his remains was escorted with great pomp by the *fleur de lis* of Dutch bourgeoisie. And if we become better acquainted with the circle of his acquaintances and correspondents, we shall again meet with the *fleur de lis*—and not only Dutch, but worldwide—bourgeoisie... Bourgeoisie honored in Spinoza its own bard.

Spinozist worldview—the song of triumphant capital—capital, devouring everything in its childish way, centralizing everything. Outside the single substance there is no being, no things: outside the large, manufactur enterprise producers cannot exist...


V

LEIBNIZ

phrasemong-
ering

[45] Leibniz's God—the owner of a model-run enterprise and himself an excellent organizer...

VI

BERKELEY

[51] To the period of *Sant Spiritus Orangiae* of English capitalist bourgeoisie cor-

explained!
Primitive
materialism
à la Hobbes

and relativ-
ism among
the Greeks

1)

2)

3)

responded Hobbes' materialism. The soil for manufactur is cleared; for manufacturers more peaceful times arrive: Hobbes' materialism is replaced by Locke's half-and-half system. Further consolidation of the position of manufacture makes possible anti-materialist outbursts.

[56] "The attraction and repulsion of workers must be produced without any obstacles": in the perceived complexes there are no absolute elements whatsoever. Everything is relative.

VII

HUME

obscurely
and [61] His kinship with all the thinkers figuring in the preceding chapters is

inaccurately. undoubted...

The position of philosophical skepticism, taken by Hume, corresponds precisely to such a conception of the capitalist organism.

x Throw everything into one heap! both idealism and skepticism, everything "corresponds" to manufactur! Simple, very simple, comrade Shulyatikov.

ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK BY V. SHULYATIKOV

IX

FICHTE, SCHELLING, HEGEL

[81] Systems of so-called objective idealism arise... || ?a Fichte?

[88] Objective idealists... x Fichte?

[94] But we know that in all systems of bourgeois worldview "matter" is considered a subordinate principle (even among the materialists, who, we repeat, mark its subordinate position by introducing the concept of "force")...

nonsense
and the concept
of "motion"?

[98—99] From the antithetical method of Fichte and Schelling's teaching on potentiation one step

to Hegelian dialectics. And apropos of it, after all that has been said in this chapter about the antithetical method, we have only a few additional remarks to make. The "real substratum" of dialectics we have already clarified. Nonsense

Hegel merely more thoroughly grounded the theory of development through "opposites," outlined by the two other objective idealists...

The innovation made by Hegel underscores the following fact from the realm of

Fichte—
objective
idealist!!!

"real" relations. The differentiation of functions and roles in manufactur reaches its *maximum*. There is |stratification| of each separate executive and each separate organizing group. Functions belonging to some one particular group are distributed among various, newly formed groups. Each group divides, gives off new ones. And the ideologue of manufacturers reckons with this process of division as a process of internal development of this or that "principle"...

( Nonsense!

X

THE REVIVAL OF "MANUFACTUR" PHILOSOPHY

[100—102] Speculative philosophy loses credit in bourgeois society. True, this does not happen all at once. But the machine also conquered the territory of industry not all at once...

Nonsense!


By what is the positive character of new ideological systems explained? By the simple law of contrasts, the simple striving to "do the opposite" of what constituted the "symbol of faith"

|simple| of yesterday?...

Individualized "complexes"—Ivan, Peter, James disappear. In their place appears
